


a love like mine

by neville



Category: Tenet (2020)
Genre: Inspired by Poetry, M/M, POV Second Person, idk i just cant stop thinking about these lines from this poem
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-07 07:08:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 438
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26349106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neville/pseuds/neville
Summary: There was a poem that Neil used to quote to you.
Relationships: Neil/The Protagonist (Tenet)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 27





	a love like mine

**Author's Note:**

> you know what, this movie really confused me so this probably doesn't make any actual sense and this probably isn't how it works but ,,, can we suspend our disbelief for the gay?

There was a poem that Neil used to quote to you, and you’re not stupid, but you had never quite understood what he meant by it. Standing, watching him go and knowing that soon you’ll see his face again but see your own reflected in the eyes of a man who doesn’t know you, it begins to make sense. 

“ _ How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot. Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! _ ” 

You look it up when it’s all over and find it in a book; you keep it with you as the world continues on, oblivious to your pain, and you continue with it. The further you travel, the more dog-eared it becomes; you’ve pressed down the corners of the page and unfolded them in loops, so when it sits on the table between you and Neil when you meet him for what is now the first time, it is held together partially by tape and mostly by your own determination. 

“Alexander Pope,” this fresh-eyed Neil says. The blameless vestal. “Interesting choice.”

“ _ A little learning is a dangerous thing; drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring _ ,” you say. You don’t know how you feel about Alexander Pope, really; poetry is something that evaded you at the best of times, but you imagine Neil’s voice reading it and it is the closest thing to comfort that you have. Across the table, his face breaks into a mischievous smile. 

Later, just before the first time he ever inverts, he says to you “fools rush in”. You don’t recognise the quote initially; but months later, you read it in the loved pages of your book, and smile back. 

  
  


You thought that maybe you would say it for the first time and it would worm its way through Neil’s brain for months after; but it’s him, in the end, who says it. You tell him about the mission for the first time in a hotel room, where he’s stretched out on the bed and you’re counting the freckles on his back. He hums. You tell him about yourself, the old you, as if he doesn’t know everything already, and he listens. 

“ _ How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot _ ,” he says thoughtfully. You laugh, and kiss his shoulder blade. 

There is a lot you don’t tell him, and a lot you know he’ll figure out. He’ll figure it out as he works his tongue around the poem that he gave you, and you will figure out the rest as you read the words, even though you don’t need to. They’re etched into your soul. 

**Author's Note:**

> the poem is "eloisa to abelard" by alexander pope and the title is from the same poem


End file.
